in part one, i noted that the garbage of this city is as distinctive as the pop culture.

here i’ll continue whomping this somewhat dubious thesis into the ground. THIS time i’ll be talking about the garbage caused by the construction industry. as you walk around the city you’ll see a LOT of shit getting smashed up / torn down. at least compared to other ‘rich people countries,’ the japanese seem to spend hella time tearing down buildings.

a great book that you all should read is DOGS AND DEMONS. it’s a sort of ‘intro to postwar Japanese beuracratic corruption’ and a lot of fun to read. the construction industry here is really powerful, having basically rebuilt the entire country after WWII. they used their the revenue from rebuilding the country to basically buy every single politician. with the result that there is now a lot of totally not necessary construction. the story goes that every building has to be rebuilt every 20 years. Fact? Legend? Law? Rumor? I don’t know. all i know is, every damn block there’s something getting smashed / pummelled / jacked up / torn down here.

also uniquely Japanese: not only do they put scaffolding over buildings they are erecting, they put FAKE CLEAN=ASS WALLS over the scaffolding to make it look neat. that’s right: they actually create a TEMPORARY BUILDING over the real building. not only that but they ALSO do this when they are TEARING DOWN A BUILDING. not all the time, but still, what the HELL people?

above:Fake ‘clean new building’ exterior erected over a building they are totally smashing the fuck out of.